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BY PAUL HENRY Co-ordinator — Crime/Court Desk henryp@jamaicaobserver.comFriday, August 23, 2013THE Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) is now challenging a ruling by the Supreme Court that it has no authority to compel telecoms giant Digicel to provide it with call data.Justice Ingrid Mangatal made the ruling last June on a case brought by the investigative body, which is trying to obtain telephone numbers and call data of the police officers allegedly involved in a conspiracy linked to the 2009 shooting death of entertainer Robert ‘Kentucky Kid’ Hill at his home at Ivy Green Mews near Cross Roads.Mangatal had ruled that:* Digicel is restricted from providing subscriber information regarding the use of its services by third parties to INDECOM pursuant to subsection 47 (1) of the Telecommunications Act;* Digicel is not compellable under section 21 (1) of the INDECOM Act to provide customer/subscriber information and/or traffic data to INDECOM; and* Digicel is not compellable under section 21 (4) of the INDECOM Act to provide to provide customer/subscriber information and/or traffic data to INDECOM.Mangatal had stated in her ruling: “If Parliament had intended INDECOM to be able to compulsorily obtain from Digicel or any other telecoms provider information — which by section 47(1) of the Telecoms Act the provider is required by statute to keep secret, and in respect of the disclosure of which the Interception of Communications Act provides for limited circumstances — then they would have legislated for the same type of provision in the INDECOM Act as exists in the Contractor General’s Act.”INDECOM has appealed the decision on several grounds, including that “the learned judge erred in stating that on a correct construction of section 21 of the INDECOM Act, INDECOM didn’t have the authority to require Digicel to produce secret or confidential information”.The commission is asking the court to set aside Mangatal’s ruling.It is seeking the following declarations:* that Digicel is mandated to provide subscriber or traffic data to INDECOM by virtue of the INDECOM ACT;* that Digicel is compellable to provide subscriber or traffic data to INDECOM by virtue of section 47(2) (b) of the Telecoms Act; and* that the commissioner of INDECOM or any INDECOM investigator may be given subscriber or traffic data by Digicel, having regard to section 47 (2) (b) (i) of the Telecoms Act.– Paul Henry
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INDECOM challenging court ruling on release of Digicel call data
